Diablo 4 Season 9 review: Sins of the Horadrim, passed on to the Son

Diablo 4 Season 9 is here, entitled Sins of the Horadrim, but how is it really? I’ll admit I enjoyed Season 8’s Witch-themed powers, even though it quickly got boring. What about the Horadric spell combos and Nightmare Dungeons, though? Does that fare any better? The short answer is “Yes, but also no". I’ve enjoyed my time in this season, and I think the Horadric powers are neat. If you don’t enjoy “borrowed power” seasons, then you’re going to have a bad time, though.

I’m holding out hope that Blizzard will try something new with one of these seasons, but Diablo 4 Season 9 isn’t one of them. The story is solid though, the powers are fun without being in the way, and the damage, for the most part, is good. I wish there weren’t so many weird nerfs to things that were fun, though.

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What’s the overall vibe and feel of Diablo 4 Season 9?

In Diablo 4 Season 9, players are being nosy when it comes to some of the Horadrim’s secrets. The Horadrim were incredibly powerful mages, who worked underneath Tyrael. The goal? Defeat the Prime Evils. There don’t appear to be any Horadrim left though, now that Lorath and Donan have perished.

The Season's powers are cool, but the repetitive borrowed power won't be for everyone (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Thanks to people fiddling in Firebreak Manor, we’ve got even more demons spilling into the world, and we’ll need the power of the Horadrim to set things right. Without spoiling anything, it all leads to the return of Astaroth, who is even more powerful than ever. Now that was exciting.

I’m glad he was brought back for Diablo 4 Season 9, because the original fight was amazing, and the new fight is just as intense. Players will have their hands full grinding through Nightmare Dungeons, collecting powers, setting up awesome combos, and finding relics of the Horadrim. It’s more of a lore season, it feels like.

I know I shouldn't have all the powers in a week, but with the time investment, I feel like I should have fewer left than I do (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Combining Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana to make Horadric Spells that enhance your current skills is great, but the grind to get the various Arcana is so frustrating. Grinding for the Horadric Jewels (unique Jewels to enhance your powers further) is even worse.

I thought it would be better than the Unique Jewels from Season 8, but I appear to have been mistaken. I’ve grinded through dozens of Nightmare Dungeons and I still am missing something like four or five Arcana so far in Diablo 4 Season 9.

Sure, it’s nothing new when it comes to the various seasons of Diablo 4, but I enjoyed Season 9, and am still playing through it as we speak. There were some pretty positive changes to the game, such as to Nightmare Dungeons.

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The Nightmare Dungeon updates are a great idea, but grinding them wasn’t always fun

Nightmare Dungeons got a really cool (and permanent) update in Diablo 4 Season 9. Now we have Horadric Strongrooms, which are a mini-dungeon within a dungeon. You’ll occasionally see them within Nightmare Dungeons, though there’s a Sigil Affix that guarantees one will appear. These are trials you can undertake for more exp, gear, and other rewards. They’re similar to Infernal Hordes, though on a much smaller scale.

These Horadric Strongrooms are honestly, pretty neat timed challenges (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

There are also tons of really cool affixes you can have on your Dungeon Sigils; in particular, I like that there’s always a Positive (Boon) and Negative (Curse) on each sigil. This makes the Nightmare Dungeons feel more worthwhile, instead of having to nitpick through sigils to get the one that’s the “least awful”.

In addition, there are Escalating Nightmare Sigils, where you challenge a series of three Nightmare Dungeons. Each one stacks even more affixes, and if you make it to the end, you can battle it out with the new version of Astaroth. This was a really fun treat, but I wish I had more of these to keep running them. This felt like when Helltides were improved. A lot’s been done for Nightmare Dungeons, but I do wish they weren’t the whole grind of Diablo 4 Season 9.

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The power scaling certainly went down, and that’s unfortunate

The nerfs were simply uncalled for (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

I think there’s something to be said about power levels in Diablo 4 Season 9. I don’t like that the numbers keep trending down, or that it gets harder and harder to be overpowered. That’s what players want. We don’t want our favorite build to feel like garbage, we want to stomp our way through greater and greater challenges, and feel powerful!

We don’t watch Dragon Ball Z because Goku’s a dork and a loser. We like seeing him break barrier after barrier, getting stronger every time. I’m not really a fan of the various nerfs that hit Season 9, and I hope we don’t keep trending down this road. I just want to feel strong, that doesn’t sound unreasonable to me.

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Unfortunately, the Reliquaries persist, but so do I

I tried to be positive about Reliquaries in Diablo 4, because it could have been a good idea, but it’s rubbish. I don't think you get your money's worth, and I've seen some of the items still suggest that you can buy them with Platinum (and not a reasonable amount, either).

Oh boy! After spending 800 Platinum to unlock this tier, I can also spend 450 for a Town Portal, or 750 Platinum over and over to get the same skin for every class! (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Before this system launched, I tried very hard to be positive about it, because I also found the Season Pass to be clunky. I didn't want to grind through 100 levels, but conversely, I don't think this is enough. There has to be some kind of middle ground that doesn't feel predatory.

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Final Thoughts

It's not the best, but it's far from the worst I've seen (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4 Season 9’s not a bad season, not by any metric, but it does have flaws. The level grind for rewards is slower than last season, which is unfortunate. It’s still an okay pace, but I genuinely miss how speedy it was for Season 8. It was the first season where it felt worth it to really get to the end of the rewards track.

Combat feels good though, and the combos for Horadric Spells seem to offer something for everyone, even if your class isn’t high on the tier list. I still hope for something new in Season 10, but I don’t hate Season 9.

I understand why some people are upset, seeing basically copy/pastes of previous seasons over again. I understand that, but I do still enjoy the little ways that seasons are shaken up as the months go on.